how would you classify his behavior? What sort of treatment should he be getting? What could you be doing for Charlie if you were his friend?

From the movie Reign Over Me, Charlie Fineman is defined as character who has gone through a tragic loss; thus, he has been immensely affected by it: being socially isolated, not mentioning his family, remodeling his kitchen every week, and many other abnormal traits. According to www.mentalhealth.com, Charlie is suffering from the psychological disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder. This disorder is intense fear and hopelessness over extreme trauma. In Charlie's case, this is because of his wife, daughters, and dog's death during the 9/11 event. Because him and his wife fought right before she died about remodeling the kitchen, he stresses over modeling his kitchen constantly. He hasn't contacted anyone that was correlated to his family after the death, since he knows they'll ask about his family and how he's doing. This could also be a result of social phobia, since Charlie doesn't talk to anyone outside his comfort zone (Alan and his landlord). He fears something about his family will come up again if he stays socially contact. Everytime something about his loss does come up, he ferociously lashes out against them, causing the other person not wanting to talk to him either.
Instead of people trying to act as though Charlie was a patient, they should do the complete opposite. Everyone should treat him normally, like nothing happened. If I were Charlie's friend, I would have first acted like nothing happened. Once we start to get close, I would naturally bring up different tragic events in my life, so he would bring up his losses with his own good intentions. Although it may be difficult for him, after he gets it out, he would feel more comfortable being alive and ready in this world. Thus, with therapy and help, Charlie Fineman can get over his tragic loss and be ready to face the reality over the world instead of isolating himself from it.